


The Inner Sanctum of Geniusness

by orphan_account



Series: Togetherness Issues (and other Superhero problems) [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Kinda Fluffy, Tony Feels, Trust, Trust Issues, friendship fic, hurt/comfort sorta, kinda angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2013-06-23
Packaged: 2017-12-14 18:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one was allowed into Tony's Workshop. Well, except Jarvis and Pepper, but no one really counted them when it came to Tony letting people do things. Rhodey and Happy could get in sometimes too, but that was it.</p><p>Until now, that is.</p><p>Can be read as a stand-alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously I love Tony feels. It's series will probably contain a lot of them, but hopefully the next work I add will be about someone else. If I can ever finish the ones I'm already working on.  
> The next chapter of the first work of this series just won't let me write it at all.

No one was allowed into Tony's Workshop. Well, except Jarvis and Pepper, but no one really counted them when it came to Tony letting people do things. Rhodey and Happy could get in sometimes too, but that was it.

Bruce let them in his lab, for all he made it obvious when he didn't want them there. He was more relaxed in the space Tony had given him, at peace with himself.

Clint let them into the archery range, except when he was at his worst and using the space to cool off. Tony stocked it with the best archery toys money couldn't buy, one of the only people he would design weapons for still.

Natasha let them into her ballet studio, which had been fitted with fingerprint-locked sliding mirrors hiding dozens of dozens of weapons from Tony. She always watched them, carefully, and rarely danced for them, but Bruce joined her in meditating and the others talked with her a little.

Steve let them into his art studio. He hid some of his drawings and rarely accepted praise, but he still let them in, even asking them to help with some of the more advanced art technology Tony had made sure to stock alongside the traditional art supplies and art history books in the room.

Thor was so open he may as well have been shouting an invitation into his space to the world. Tony brought Jane to stay, and she set a bit of a boundary line where their bedroom was concerned, but not a hard line, more like one in the sand; easy to step over, just there as a reminder that sometimes they needed privacy.

Coulson let them into his office, which was almost like a sacred privilege by the way the junior agents phrased it. Tony eventually bought the man a comfortable couch because the Avengers were in and out so often.

But no one was allowed into Tony's Workshop. Oh he had others, labs and shops where he'd take a tricky design or a fun one to work with Bruce on, ones they could talk to him in, but it was extremely clear from the very beginning that no one, _no one_ , except Tony, Pepper, Happy, Rhodey, and Jarvis were allowed in his inner sanctum, and occasionally not even them. He'd hide away there for days and emerge with a new com unit, three possible fabrics for body armor for Natasha and Steve to test, and a new arrow design for Clint before collapsing in his stark bedroom. After a bad fight, he went to The Workshop, rather than to his room or the common area with the others. 

Steve had mentioned it once in curiousity, wondering if it was a trust issue and offering to try and fix it. Tony had smirked a little, but his eyes were wary and hard, unwilling to negotiate.  
"Nah, Cap, trust is a pretty fluid concept for me," he had replied, "I just like my space."  
All of them got the gist of not wanting to pry and left it alone after that, and for over a year Tony spent more time in the workshop than out of it.


	2. Phil's Got a Headache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amazingly, it was Clint who got the first glimpse of the billionaire's reclusive little world.

"Cap, on your six!" He hollered. Steve turned fast enough to catch the beam on his shield, and Clint took out the one he'd been fighting, arrow whipping past Steve's ear.

"Are we seriously fighting -"

"Mutant lobsters with lasers for eyes?" Natasha summed up.

"Exactly," Tony continued. "I am elated to know this isn't all a hallucination caused by heavy drugs of some kind."

"I vote we call them Lazerobsters." Clint decided, ignoring the sarcasm.

"Lazerobsters? Yeah, very punny Hawky."

"I pride myself in - oh SHIT-" he saw Tony turn in the air faster than he could have said quidditch as one of the Lazerobsters took out the mildly unstable corner he was standing. Well, it was mildly unstable _now_ , it wasn't a minute ago. He also saw one of the monsters take notice of Tony's distraction. Giving up precious seconds of time before his footing gave out, he fired straight past the iron man into the beast's maw before he was falling.

He closed his eyes and braced himself. The impact didn't hurt, maim, or kill him as badly as he thought it would.

" _Jesus_ Barton, give a guy some warning!" Tony voice was light, but there was a faint undercurrent to it that Clint didn't understand. "Five more seconds and you would have gone splat. You do realize they haven't gotten through the suit yet, right? And you are aware that you aren't an actual bird?"

"Aw, you do care." Clint grinned, despite the bruises he could already feel forming, as Tony deposited him on a ledge. "Chirp, chirp."

"As if." Tony snorted.

Clint received a new grappling hook later.

* * *

**A Few Weeks Later**

" _Agent Barton, Master Stark would like to see you in The Workshop._ "

Clint looked up at the ceiling in surprise. "Sure, J, which one?" He asked as Natasha climbed out of the sparring ring with him. He wasn't expecting the answer.

" _ **His** workshop._ " Jarvis sounded amused. " _I believe you have taken to calling it the Inner Sanctum of Geniusness. If you'll enter the private elevator, I will take you to the proper floor._ "

He and Natasha shared a stunned silence for a moment. "Did I imagine that?"

The Widow shook her head. "No."

"I'll be right down, J," Cint replied. "Just let me wash up first."

" _It would be best if you went straight down, Sir._ " Another amazed silence. The only one Jarvis called sir was... Well... Tony. " _It is in Master Stark's best interest that someone distract him before he starts playing with semi-explosive objects while sleep deprived, and you are nearest on the list of approved persons._ "

"Sure." Clint jumped into the elevator, which quickly descended. He was still in shock, a little bit, and overwhelmed was an understatement. He was the first one of the team allowed into The Workshop after over a year of fighting, working, and living together. If he'd ever thought any of them would be allowed in, he would've guessed Bruce.

* * *

Tony glanced up when the elevator doors opened. "Clint, just the man I wanted to see!"

Clint looked around. Countertops were covered in machine parts and technological marvels whose purpose he cold only guess at. His attention was quickly drawn back to the genius himself, scolding a robot with one arm for getting in the way and looking like he should have keeled over a week ago.

"Tony, how long has it been since you slept?" He asked.

"I dunno. Come here, look, I made you a this, come on, we need to test it in a 'safe environment' so Agent doesn't kill me -"

Clint decided to just go with it; he could recognize nervous rambling from Tony when he heard it now. Allowing the genius to attatched thin rings to both of his ankles, Clint raised an eyebrow when Tony handed him a thin disk.

"Throw it down."

Cint obeyed and was shocked to see the disk spread itself into a smooth skateboard like object hovering a few inches off the ground. The grin that spread across his face was nothing short of maniacal.

"Oh, Phil is going to _murder_ us."

Tony smirked as Cint climbed on board.

* * *

Phil nearly did murder them when he arrived in the medical center of the tower two hours later to find the two laughing while a nurse patched up various small cuts and bruises.

"Relax, we were testing the hoverboard in a controlled environment." Tony rolled his eyes at the furious agent.

Phil felt a headache set in. "Why, exactly, did you build the hoverboard in the first place?"

"Why not?" The two chorused.

Phil's life was about to get a lot more difficult. He would need to stock up on aspirin with these two lunatics loose in Tony Stark's workshop with little to no supervision, but he couldn't bring himself to regret the display of Stark's trust.

Yet.


	3. Interlude: Curiosity Killed the Hawk

"Hey, Tony?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you let me in here?"

The billionaire looked at the archer in surprise, thinking about it. "Well, there was that thing where you kept saving my ass at your own expense, but really..."

* * *

Despite ridiculous security measures, someone _[(readlink:HYDRA goons)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/855017)_ had managed to break into the tower.

Most of the Avengers, at this point, have begun to assume that Lady Luck just takes a great deal of enjoyment in messing with them.

* * *

Pepper Potts spent all of her time working. Luckily, she enjoyed her work. Unfortunately, she also had to deal with the Avengers issues on occasion, and they had many, many issues. Currently, Clint Barton was sitting in a chair next to her, extolling the virtues of the new line of climbing gear Tony had designed because he was sick of his teammate jumping off of buildings with no warning at all. Granted, she had asked him to, so she could put 'Hawkeye Tested and Approved' on the packaging, but it was getting to be a bit much.

She honestly almost thanked the HYDRA agents when they stormed her office. Clint warily climbed to his feet, grateful for the desk between them and the goons.

"Miss Potts, you're coming with us." one of them said.

"Oh God, could you be any more cliched?" she asked. "Hell no."

"You are coming, or you are going nowhere at all."

Clint's heart drummed a little faster with the barrel pointed at arguably one of his best friend's lover's head. Tony would destroy the world if Potts got shot. No, that was an understatement. Tony would be coming in the armor, but too slowly, too damn slow, the door slammed open and the triggerman jumped.

_"PEPPER!"_ Clint blearily thought through a haze of pain, voices demanding he not close his eyes, and the feel of cool metal on skin, that he never wanted to hear any of his team shriek like that again.

* * *

"It wasn't until after you got out of Medical that I actually was calm enough to think about it, but I realized something."

"What?" Clint was honestly curious; what had he done to impress Iron Man that day? Nothing out of the ordinary.

"When I opened the door and knew I would be to slow, I looked at you and realized I trusted you with _Pepper_." He met Clint's eye. "And there is very, very little I place above Pepper."


End file.
